Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman Return for Star Trek 3

Aug 9, 2013

Here is an interview that IGN did with Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, about returning to write the third Star Trek film. They are currently in talks with Paramount and hopefully the film will be out for the 50th anniversary in 2016.

IGN: How influenced, or not, are you by the online feedback to your work?

Kurtzman: Bob will constantly say when we’re writing something, ‘Oh you know, I’ve been reading a lot online and people aren’t liking X or Y or they’re critical of this or that.’ We’ll certainly weigh that into the things that we write. We’ll decide if we want to give that total merit or say, ‘Okay, but still there’s more to be explored here and we really like it.’ So I just don’t believe that you’re ever really finished. I think you have to let it be an evolving process. There’s all these articles that are being written right now about the summer tent poles, and why some work, and why some don’t. We’ve had a very fortunate summer, but I can’t exactly tell you why.

IGN: So are you tuned in to people’s response to the use of Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness and if they liked it or if they didn’t?

Kurtzman: Oh, for sure. That’s very specific. Khan is a whole different ball game. We debated whether we were going to us Khan or not for a year before we started writing anything. Before we committed to breaking story, even. Khan is the Joker of Star Trek. Khan is the most memorable villain in Star Trek and probably the thing that got me completely locked in on Trek as a kid. And because it was also, really the most emotional Trek ever, we knew what we would be taking on by taking on Khan. And part of it was, ‘Okay lets do it because of all of the reasons, because we’re protective of him, because we know what it means.’ At the same time we talked a lot about how we were going to make it really different. We did not want to do a remake of The Wrath of Khan. And yet there are certain things about our version of Khan that you recognize, that feel similar, but it’s not the same story. We just didn’t want to do that and I think so far, for the most part, people appreciated that. But it took a lot of thought. We gave it a lot of thought.

IGN: I just talked to Karl Urban, and we were speculating on what might be next in the Trek cinematic franchise. He was saying that maybe for the next one it would be interesting to go for something original, and not sort of go into some of the classic stories and characters from the franchise.

Orci: [Laughs] So he doesn’t want to be in it? No Bones?

IGN: [Laughs] I think he probably means other than the central crew. I think he means villain-wise or in terms of specific story threads.

Orci: Ah I see! He just wants to repeat that part, not the other part. [Laughs]

IGN: Oh man, I hope I did not just say something to get him in trouble.

Orci: No it’s hilarious, we have a great relationship with Karl.

Kurtzman: We’ll go out back and beat him up.

IGN: Well what do you think, as people who are yourselves attached to that franchise, do you think it’s important to integrate those elements from the original franchiss in the movies going forward?

Orci: I think it’s interesting, part of the fun of being a Star Trek fan is that everyone is potentially equally an expert on what Star Trek was. And so, I think part of the guessing game that is fun is, ‘What will they do? What elements from the universe will they use and what will be new?’ So for me, yes I like to do new stuff. On the other hand, I think people like to speculate and guess and imagine what they might use from the franchise. The minute that I tell you that it’s going to be a new race of beings, and they are this [about an inch] small, and they have one antenna that sticks out of their tale..

IGN: I’m listening…

Orci: [Laughs] But then you don’t get to play the Star Trek guessing game. I think we went one way, well the origin story is an origin story. Then we went to the Joker of the Star Trek universe and so yeah, now I think we’ve earned the right to try more unexplored things. But remember in the first movie, the criticism was, ‘Well they’re violating canon, it’s too original.’ Then it was, ‘Well it’s a rip off.’ So, as Alex says, you have to trust that if you are truly a fan of something that you can create something that you’d want to see and hope that others will follow along with you.

Kurtzman: Yeah, are you protecting the spirit of what everybody loved about it? There’s no way that you’re going to get consensus on Khan. It’s impossible. But we knew that going into it, and knowing that we were able to focus on what we wanted to see.

IGN: There’s been rumors that you’ve tapped your replacements to write the third film, is there any validity to that?

Orci: We are currently talking to Paramount to see if we can make a schedule work where we can remain involved, but again, for example the second movie we teamed with Damon Lindelof, so on the the third film we may do something similar.

IGN: With Damon Lindelof?

Orci: With anyone who’s willing and able to come help out with the crew of the Enterprise.

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